A SIMPLE device similar to a tea-strainer could prevent thousands of potentially fatal or disabling strokes each year in the UK, it was claimed yesterday.

A SIMPLE device similar to a tea-strainer could prevent thousands of potentially fatal or disabling strokes each year in the UK, it was claimed yesterday.

The mesh cylinder, placed in the neck's carotid artery, diverts blood clots away from the brain where they can do terrible damage leading to death or paralysis.

An 80-year-old woman considered to be at high risk of stroke became the first patient to receive the device late last year. Three months after the operation she remains healthy and stroke-free, New Scientist magazine reported.

Stroke is the second most common cause of death in the Western world. In England and Wales alone, about 100,000 people have a first stroke each year - one every five minutes.

Some 300,000 people in England and Wales are living with disabilities triggered by strokes.

The most common cause of a stroke is a clot formed elsewhere in the body travelling to the brain, where it blocks one of the small blood vessels.

This deprives cells of oxygen, killing off part of the brain.

The device, known as the "Diverter", was developed by MindGuard, an Israeli company based in Haifa.

It consists of a fine mesh tube implanted in each of the two carotid arteries in the neck at the point where they fork.

One branch of the artery carries blood to the brain, while the other supplies the face.

The Diverter allows blood to flow through it, but clots or any other debris measuring more than 300 micrometres across is blocked from the branch leading to the brain. Instead the clots are swept along the other branch to the face, where they can do no harm.

Peter Rothwell, director of the Oxford Stroke Prevention Research Unit at Oxford University, said, "The device makes sense because about 40% of strokes are caused by blood clots from the heart or arch of the aorta."

He said the Diverter could offer an alternative to giving high-risk patients anti-clotting drugs which may cause life-threatening bleeding.

However, only a large trial could rule out the possibility that the device itself might cause clots to form, he said.

Another worry was that the mesh might clog up, restricting the flow of blood to the brain. The company says extensive tests on pigs have shown this is not a problem.

"MindGuard envisages the device being implanted in people with a history of heart disease, valve disease or some other potential cause of clots," said New Scientist.